My body chemistry was working with me this weekend and I was so thankful for that! We left the boys home alone again and drove to Boulder on Saturday. I love this time of year in Colorado and driving to Boulder reminds us of why we love living here. Warm weather and the view of the Rocky Mountains as we drive along I-25 is spectacular. I found a new hotel in Broomfield for a great rate, so we traded a bit more driving for a really nice room. Given the choice, Steve would have chosen the dumpy room and less driving, but it was my turn to make reservations! We checked in, hauled a tremendous amount of equipment to our room and took a nap. The looks we get when we roll our bikes into the hotel lobby, up the elevator and in our rooms are priceless! If you don’t know triathlons, surely you think this is all crazy. Now that I think about it, even though we do know triathlons, it’s still crazy!
We have started a tradition of eating our pre race dinner at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder with friends from the Pike’s Peak Tri Club so we met up at the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a great meal mingled with plenty of triathlon talk, prior races, highlights and lowlights.
We were up well before the crack of dawn (did I actually go to sleep??), consuming all the things we prepared for our pre race food. I usually have a protein shake while Steve has a full breakfast of eggs, toast, milk, juice following by gels, a bagel plenty of fluid. Since this was a longer race I had a couple pieces of wheat free bread toasted with peanut butter. We prepared our food for during the race (peanut butter and jelly for me, almond butter and jelly for Steve) and packed our Sport Beans, jells and Gatorade in the appropriate places. We hauled all our gear back down to the car (didn’t we just bring it up not more than 12 hours ago??) and headed to Boulder Res. Being the early person Steve is, we didn’t hit traffic and parked way up front. When the race is over I’m thankful we’re up front, but this early in the morning I would have preferred to sleep a little longer!
We head to the transition area with our bikes and gear, get our timing chip, get numbered and set up our transition area. Since we got here so early we have like hours before the race starts, so we head back to the car and chill.
Steve starts the swim first and I visited with my age groupers. I met a woman in the last race in my age group and we started chatting again. This was her 1st half ironman and she was anxious. Being the very experienced 70.3 triathlete that I am (after all, this is my SECOND 70.3) I was available to give her lots of advise.
I am relaxed during the swim, pushing a little bit, but not stressing about it. I focus on my form and avoiding swimming over people. My moment of glory is when I start passing athletes from earlier waves. Since I never get to experience passing people on the bike, I enjoy these moments immensely!
Swim to bike transition was fine and I headed out to the bike course. The bike was uneventful but enjoying riding along the beautiful countryside outside Boulder with the Rocky Mountains to the West. I beat by bike time from my prior 70.3 Boulder by almost 30 minutes so I was ecstatic about that. My new Cervelo is doing the trick!
Now the run. I was concerned about my endurance level for this race and as it turned out, my concern was well founded! It was difficult this summer to get my long runs in and prior to the race, I had only done 2 10 mile runs. That doesn’t support a 13.1 mile run in a tri very well! I started off on the run course and within a few minutes Steve passed me on his 2nd lap of the run. I was feeling tired already so did my run/walk pace. I finished the 1st lap and Steve had finished his race and started running my 2nd lap with me. I could tell he was really tired and told him not to run with me but as usual, he didn’t take my advice! As we were running along, I felt myself getting even more fatigued and turned to Steve saying “This is going to take a REALLY long time!” Despite my fatigue, I was in good spirits and mentally felt well and grateful to be out there doing this. I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep up a faster pace, but realistically knew I hadn’t trained enough. We jogged/walked the 2nd lap of the run and before long I was at that stupid hill about 200 yds from the finish line. It is a very small hill but at the end of the race, it feels like a mountain! I crossed the finish line and was elated!
Crossing the finish line is always a completely satisfying moment but this year felt even more intense. With the tough year I had, I felt like I really had persevered and overcame some hurdles and challenges to not only get to the starting line, but to finish. The training, the early mornings, getting in the pool at 5am when what I really wanted to do was sleep, and doing long rides when mentally and physically I just didn’t feel like it. After I crossed the finish line we walked to an area where I could sit down. As soon as I sat down, emotion overcame me and I put my head in my hands and just sobbed. After I got that out of my system, we walked around, ate and chatted with friends.
Steve wanted to qualify for the 70.3 World Championship but it didn’t look like this was going to be the race. A friend checked the results and Steve was posted as finished 17th in his age group. So we packed up and were debating on whether to stay for the awards. I checked the results again and they were not posted correctly the first time – Steve was 7th in his age group. He still didn’t think he would qualify, but I encouraged him to stay for the awards ceremony. He did qualify and immediately got his credit card out to pay for the World Championships in Clearwater!
Overall, a great day and my recovery period has officially started!
